Do You Have A Case Of Writing Suck-Itis?
Writing suck-itis – The internal belief that you are just not cut out to be a writer. If left un-cured, the Itis can, and will limit your potential in life. How to self diagnose the Itis: You will be strolling through your day when all of a sudden, a light-bulb goes off. The next big idea presents itself. Excitement peaks. Pen hits paper, fingers start dancing on the keyboard and you are off to the races. Three sentences unravel and production comes to a halting start. The thought of What the hell am I trying to say? presents itself in your mind. Things turn south and a traffic jam of thoughts send your levels of discouragement soaring to crippling heights. Disrespectful self-talk now fills your mind You suck at writing. You will never make it. Give-up. At this point, you can be sure you have the Itis. But do not fret, there is a cure and it is made up of 3 main understandings.
The first key understanding is in the way we structure our thoughts in our mind and in our writing. Thoughts in our mind are very short form and high-level in detail. Whereas, putting thoughts to paper requires long-form explanation at a much more detailed level. This transference from high to low-level detail is where complexity and difficulty arises. For example, before I wrote this post I had an idea that I wanted to write about the struggles of turning thoughts in our mind into legible ideas on paper. This sounds simple when said out loud, but is a much different story when we start turning that 1 sentence into 500-1000 words on paper. Know that the first draft of any writing will always resemble a steaming pile of something monkeys like to throw around… Professional writer Leigh Shulman has so precisely dubbed this the Shi77y First Draft (SFD). Accept the fact that every single first draft of your writing will be awful and learn to walk away from it immediately after getting your core thoughts to paper. Take your mind away from writing for at least 1 hour and then waltz right in to understanding #2.
The second key understanding is that you MUST ALWAYS laugh at your first draft upon returning to it. Stare your ill-constructed sentences, incomplete reasoning and funky flow in the face and LAUGH. After you finish up with your LOL, it is time to start making sense of your work. Taking time away from your writing allows you to come back with a fresh mindset and renewed outlook on the topic. Start distilling your thoughts into purer versions of themselves by focusing on added clarity to your key point and flow within your words. As a general rule of thumb, you should come back to your writing 5 times (from intro to closing) for clean-up after your draft has been completed. After reviewing your work 5 times you will notice confidence and momentum building as the Itis loses its controlling grip on your mind.
The third key understanding is to only ever write about one point at a time. As soon as you try to deliver multiple points the entire process complicates, adding on unnecessary time and frustration. Each main idea will require supporting evidence; shoot for 3 pieces of supporting information to provide credibility to the main idea. For example, in this post my key focus is on the self-defeating thoughts writers encounter. I could have also talked about writers block, structuring thoughts, or how to vet ideas for quality. Each of these key points hold substance on their own, but take away from each other when combined into writing <1000 words. Focus on one key point at a time and if another one jumps into your mind, save it for your next piece of writing.
There you have it, the cure for writing Suck-Itis. Next time you feel an onset, remember that your first draft will always look terrible. Finish your main thoughts and then step away from it. On returning to your work, take a moment to laugh out loud at the funny looking work in front of you and start the distillation process. Clean up your work at least 5x and remember to only ever write about one key point at a time. Oh, and always have fun with it ?
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Co-Founder & CMO at LOYCAL ?? Certified DiSC? Trainer ???????? International Speaker?? Empowering Teams and Leaders to Enhance Team Collaboration & Improve Performance
8 年Great tips! I also think that as long as you write on a topic of passion, it's really hard to get writers block (I thought that was a myth :) ). But, yes - after authoring and co-authoring multiple books - I too found that the key is to "just write," and worry about fixing it up later.
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8 年Great practical advice for overcoming SFD Calvin Simpson! It works. I use it all the time. And the changing focus trick is always a winner.
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8 年This is so great Calvin Simpson! Fwiw, I didn't come up with that term. I think I heard it first in Anne Lamott's book about writing Bird By Bird. Which is a must-read for anyone who wants to write a book. But I certainly do use the concept ALL THE TIME in my writing and teaching! :) Thank you for the shout out!
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8 年They say always lead by example, evident here :). Throughly enjoyed and a tight article Calvin Simpson
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8 年Thanks to Leigh Shulman for creating the SFD for writers to grasp a hold of :)